<center>A New Zigzag</center>
<center>by Vaughan</center>
Clare Nova's show had been stylish and well performed, with some innovations that surprised and frustrated, because I had some idea of how the effects were usually achieved, being an amateur magician myself. Most of these innovations seemed to be totally impossible by the methods I knew about. The biggest innovation (until the last effect that is) was the use of a video camera hooked up to a large screen TV to make the smaller card tricks accessible to the two-hundred and odd people in the audience. Of course it was the last effect that blew me away.
She shut off the TV and wheeled it into the wings. Clare wheeled a tall and thin cabinet on. She returned to the wings once more to bring on a small magician's table which she placed alongside the tall cabinet. On the table were a couple of blades.
"Most of you will recognize this item of apparatus as the cabinet for that well known illusion 'The
Zigzag Lady'" She paused to allow the affirmative mutters to subside. "I also suspect that many of you think you know how it was done, after the supposed secret was revealed on the notorious Fox Specials. For those who don't know, the masked exposer said that the assistant twists sideways. Well this version, that I had specially made for me, does not use that principle."
"This cabinet," she continued, "has various modifications so that I can perform it unassisted." She was opening the doors in the front of the cabinet, revealing nothing but an empty matt black interior, with two horizontal cracks of light through the slots in the back that lined up with the top and bottom of the middle door. She then rotated the cabinet which was a lot less deep than I had expected, maybe eighteen inches, perhaps a little less, and about two foot wide. "As you can see the frame on this side is half inch square steel tube. That's mainly for quick assembly, but it's also like that so as not to hide anything, unlike the usual version's wide frame." While she told us this she lifted and locked into place a shelf that aligned with the bottom of the middle door and another that aligned with the top.
"As you can see there is nowhere to hide anything. Bear with me while I get into the cabinet."
Getting into the cabinet seemed awkward. First, she put her right arm into the cabinet and her hand out though a hole in the side of the top section, she then stepped in and faced front again with her entire arm and part of her shoulder outside the cabinet. Her other shoulder was still touching the other side of the cabinet, because it was so narrow. Her next
maneuver was to struggle her left arm almost up to her elbow out through a hole near the top of the mid section. She did not look as if she would be able to turn or do anything else for that matter.
"It may seem that I'm not in a situation to do much, but I will still be able to perform this illusion."
Using her right hand she closed the bottom door concealing her stockinged legs up to mid-thigh. Immediately she
shuffled forward to put her ballet slippered toes through the cutout in the base of the door. Next she closed the door to the middle section leaving only her nicely proportioned bust upwards on view with her left upper arm twisted uncomfortably.
"OK, wish me luck," she called as she shut the top door and put her smiling face to the cutout.
There were some of us that could appreciate the difficulty of entering and closing the cabinet, so we gave her a ripple of applause. Her smile brightened.
"Now for the first blade." She reached to the table which was just within reach and took a blade. This she swung against the cabinet, lifting it so we could hear the twang of the metal of the blade. I also noticed some damaged of the corner of the cabinet where she had done this before. "This blade, as you can see, is only slightly narrower than the cabinet and longer than the cabinet is deep." She demonstrated this by holding the blade in front of the cabinet so that a little of the edges of the cabinet could be seen either side of the bright metal of blade. With quite an effort which showed on her face, she raised the blade and located it in the slot between the bottom and middle doors. The sudden and surprisingly quick move that pushed the blade into the cabinet was accompanied by a grunt of effort from Clare and a thunk as the handle of the blade was stopped by the cabinet.
After a few moments she smiled a half reassuring smile, before announcing and picking up the second blade from the table. This blade seemed to take more effort to fit into place, but once in position it slid home with the same speed and noises.
"As is now doubt obvious, I have divided myself into three sections," she announced, indicating the three sections with her right hand. "Because if I hadn't, I wouldn't be able to do this." Using her right arm she pushed the middle section from between the upper and lower sections. When the box containing her belly was almost entirely removed (only about three inches of overlap) she could not reach any further to push it. She reached back to the table and picked up a stick with a hook on the end which she use to push the midsection a further five inches onto the shelf leaving a gap of an inch or so between the midsection and the others.
"Tada," she sang, making the appropriate gestures with her arms, despite the constraining situation. "So, there you have it, my feet down there," she pointed at her toes and wriggled them. "My midsection," with her right hand she pointed, and her left hand, still the length of her forearm outside the box, produced and vanished a billiard ball, which I guess is a feat not possible for any fake limb; I guess few could have done it left handed. "And my face." She reached round and touched her chin. She received some very warm applause and seemed to bask in it until it began to fade.
Swiftly she reversed the procedure. She used the hooked end of the stick to pull her displaced middle back to the more usual place and then pulled both blades which she allowed to drop to the floor with a clang, rather than try to put them on the table, while her left hand dismantled the two side shelves and dropped those on the floor.
"That's it folks. I'm sorry to cut and run, but I've got a party I've got to go to. I hope you don't mind that I took the liberty of changing while I demonstrated 'The
Zigzag Lady'." Saying this she pulled in her left arm then pushed open the cabinet doors. She stepped from the cabinet wearing a white
sequined full evening gown off the left shoulder. This was a vast difference from the ringmaster one-piece and stockings she had been wearing when she entered the box. In fact, the skirts of the dress were so voluminous that she had some difficulty getting them out of the box.
We all applauded for what must have been three of four minutes, while she smiled and bowed and curtseyed. Then the curtain descended.
I hung around the scene dock where Clare Nova's van was parked, in the hope of getting an encouraging word from a professional and perhaps a signed photograph, for which I had brought a
Polaroid camera. When she appeared twenty minutes later, she was pushed the TV. With admirable efficiency, she open the rear doors of the van, pulled out a ramp and rumbled the TV up into the van. She was strapping it in went I approached.
"Miss Nova," I began, "I know you're busy, but have you got time to give me an autograph."
"Not at the moment, but if you can stick around for another five or ten minutes, I can give you a minute or so. I really do have a party to go to."
Then she spotted my camera. "Can you take a photo of us together with that?" she asked.
"Yes, it's got a shutter timer, it means I don't need anyone else about to collect photos of me with my
favorite magicians."
"Set it up quickly and you can have a picture."
I lost no time setting up and having set the timer went to stand next to her. To my surprise she drew me to her and hugged me, then the flash went off. The whirr of the photo extruding from the camera followed and she sprinted to retrieve the white card with the
gray square on it. She hugged me again and I could feel her insert the developing photo into my back pocket.
"I'll be back in a few minutes. If that photo is still in your back pocket, I'll sign it and do you a quick card trick."
I mumbled my thanks to her retreating back and then hung around for what seemed like a very long time. She reappeared pushing a shipping crate on wheels, which I helped her push up the ramp into the van, then while she strapped it down I helped by returning the ramp.
"OK," she said, "think of a card!"
That took me by surprise, so I paused for several seconds before thinking of the queen of clubs. "I've thought of one."
"Take one of these cards," she instructed, offering me a fan of cards face down. I was astounded, because I did not see her get out any cards. I reached forward and selected a card. After a few moments she added, "Well, aren't you going to look at it?"
I blushed, then my jaw dropped as I looked at the queen of clubs. "That's amazing!" I exclaimed, then I added, "and it was quick too."
"I'm glad you liked it. Now I'll sign your photo."
I reached into my back pocket and withdrew the photo that by now was clear and fully developed. As I was passing it over I froze. The picture was not quite as expected. There was, of course, me and Clare in a hug, but Clare's hands were held apart behind me and between them she held a large queen of clubs.
I sputtered for a moment while she took the photo from me and signed it, using the pen I was half offering with my other hand. I was still recovering when she hand the photo and pen back to me. I was so far beyond amazed that I can not think of a word for it.
She unfroze me by asking if I would like to come to the party with her. I readily agreed and what a night that turned out to be.